HOLLYWOOD -- Selma Blair insists she had no burning desire to get married.

That is until she met Ahmet Zappa, whom she married in January.

"It was a blind date set up by a mutual friend. Eight days later we were engaged, so I guess you could call it a whirlwind romance," says Blair.

The actress had spent six months in Prague filming Hellboy, the hit comic book adventure tale in which she plays the hero's love interest, the pyro-kinetic Liz Sherman.

"Before Prague, I wasn't a true relationship kind of girl. I had my share of boyfriends and was even nursing a bit of a broken heart, but I wasn't looking for something permanent."

Suddenly Blair found herself in a city where she didn't speak the language, and on a special effects movie where she spent as much time waiting to film as she did actually filming.

"I've been lonely most of my adult life. I'm used to the hum of air conditioners in hotel rooms, but in Prague it was the worst of the worst.

"I was so lonely I realized I needed a companion in my life. I really felt incomplete."

No sooner had Blair arrived back in L.A. than a friend called to say she'd found ideal husband material for the actress.

"When she told me it was Ahmet Zappa, I said to forget it. I made it clear he was not my style. I'd seen him on MTV and thought he was a fool. I told her I thought he was an idiot.

"My friend persisted, so I agreed to go on the date, but I insisted it could not be an evening affair."

Blair and Zappa met for breakfast the day she had to have a wig fitting for the movie A Dirty Shame.

She had suggested the meeting hoping he'd cancel, but he didn't. That brief encounter led to a Saturday night date in which they talked most of the night.

Six days later they were at the matchmaker friend's house helping her put her children to bed, so they could all sit around and talk.

Conversation slid to astrological signs.

"We talked about how well Cancer and Taurus are supposed to be together. I'm the Cancer. I leaned over and whispered jokingly in his ear if he'd like to marry me.

"To my shock he said yes."

Blair was in for an even greater shock later that evening.

As the couple left the house, Zappa got down on his knee and proposed.

"He gave me a yellow highlighter pen because he didn't have a ring. I accepted. We discovered later that when his dad Frank Zappa proposed, he gave Ahmet's mother a pen instead of a ring.

"It's great serendipity and we're deliriously happy."

For Mark Ruffalo, falling in love was the easy part.

Getting his lady love to agree to marriage was a comedy of errors.

Ruffalo, who stars opposite Jennifer Garner in 13 going on 30, had been dating actress Sunrise Coigney for more than a year when they were spending a day at Big Sur.

"It was so idyllically beautiful that I suddenly just asked her if she'd marry me. She asked if I had a ring, which of course, I didn't because I hadn't planned on proposing," says Ruffalo. "She called me an appropriate name and said she'd have to consult her therapist first."

The couple never spoke about the botched proposal again.

A year later, Ruffalo was ready. He had the ring. He'd booked a table at an expensive restaurant in Upstate New York.

"It had rained earlier in the day and it was spectacularly beautiful, so I felt everything was going my way this time."

Suddenly, a deer darted out of the woods along the highway.

"There was jolt and suddenly we were staring at a deer on the hood of my car. (Coigney) was horrified. I was horrified because I concluded this was not going to be a good day to propose."

As suddenly as it appeared, the deer disappeared.

It had only been stunned and slid off the car.

A little rattled, the couple made it to the restaurant.

Ruffalo had foolishly mentioned when he was making reservations that it was a proposal dinner.

"The waiter kept smiling at me knowingly. Sunrise was convinced that he recognized me from (the TV series) Houdini and said it made her feel uncomfortable."

Ruffalo put his plans on hold until they couple got back to the house they shared.

"I couldn't let the day get away.

"It was the second anniversary of the day we'd met ,so I took a blanket out into the yard and told her to join me to look at the stars.

"Before I lost my courage, I asked her to marry me, showed her the ring and she accepted."


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